A Beginner’s Guide to a Successful Resume

One of the most important steps in finding any internship or job is to have a strong resume. Your resume tells potential employers about past job experience, academic knowledge and your career interests. However, building a concise and effective resume can be difficult, especially if this is your first time. Here are a couple of tips I want to share about creating a successful resume!

1. Know what you are applying for.

The most effective resume is one that is made specifically for the position you are applying for. Before making the resume, read through the job description and understand exactly what the nature of the position is, what the necessary responsibilities are, and most significantly, what skills you can bring to the job. While I’m sure your serving job taught you a lot about patience and dealing with horrible humankind, it is probably not the first thing your professional employer is interested in reading about.

2. Keep it clean and simple.

The most ideal resume for any internship or job is simple and straight to the point. Try to keep it to one page, and keep the font, the size of the text, and the format of the resume easy on the eyes. Anyone reading the resume should be able to find specific sections quickly. A good way to make a resume is to use a pre-made template from a website. VelvetJobs is a helpful resource especially for Rochester students because when they log in with their student emails, the website provides guidance for not only creating a strong resume, but finding jobs and internships as well.

3. Add and subtract details.

Describing your past job experience is probably the most difficult part about building a resume. Descriptions must be concise, but they still have to be detailed enough to let the reader know what skills you have obtained from the experience. Do not be afraid to subtract, or to take out any details that do not matter to the position you are applying for. Pick only the skills that are relevant to the position you want, and expand on them as much as you can!

4. Second professional set of eyes.

Just like any good essay or project, editing only makes the resume better. The most helpful editing for resume comes from people who have a lot of experience with job searching and resume building. Rochester has a Career Center, an amazing resource that helps students with building resumes, searching for jobs or internships, and even connecting with alumni. You can go in any time during walk-in hours or even make an appointment.

Resume building and job searching can seem overwhelming, especially if this is your first time, but you are probably not the only one stressed out about this. Millions of college students around the world are struggling with this, too! So take a deep breath, figure out what your strengths are, and use the resources around you to build the best resume that will give you a successful result.